The best thing about these add-ons is that they can provide users with a great deal of security and privacy as far as their browsing habits are concerned.

Additionally, Firefox also offers deep configuration settings.

These settings make it possible for users to tweak the Firefox experience according to their own security and privacy needs.

Firefox allows advanced users to set up parameters in order to achieve optimal privacy and security.

WebExtensions

What are these?

Well, first readers should know that in the last couple of months or so, Firefox has made a lot of efforts to transition away from the web browser’s older add-ons framework.

Now it has these WebExtensions.

Users who have downloaded the new Firefox 57 or Quantum, should know that now they cannot use any old extensions except for the ones that are on the Web Extensions add-on website.

But that doesn’t mean all older add-ons are useless.

Developers have worked hard and have transferred some of the old add-ons to the new framework.

Chances are that you will find all the necessary extensions on the new platform.

If you can’t then there is very little doubt that Firefox developers will bring those extensions to the new framework very soon.

There is a very helpful site called “Are We WebExtensions yet?”, you can go to this website and find out all the latest news about all the older add-ons that have managed to make the switch and are available on the new Firefox platform.

Understand things like Web Browser Fingerprinting

The problem with using modern operating systems and web browsers is this:

They can help anyone with enough skill to identify you.

How is that possible?

Well, look, each online consumer has (to some level or another) configured his/her web browser according to his/her own needs.

That is especially true in terms of the plugins that the user has installed on his/her web browser.

Add to that the fact that it is not hard to find out the user’s operating system details.

Combine information from both the setup of the operating system and the setup of the web browser, and it becomes worryingly easy for someone with enough skill to uniquely identify users.

Once someone has identified you, they can track you.

And web browsers along with operating system details can allow that to a high degree of accuracy.

This is also a good time to mention one specific ironic and insidious aspect of web browser fingerprinting.

The more a user makes efforts to stop tracking and everything else (probably with the help of all the Firefox add-ons that protect users from tracking and spying), the more unique the user’s web browser fingerprint becomes.

So what’s the best line of defense against problems such as web browser fingerprinting?

Well, no need for any difficult solutions.

The most pain-free way to do it is to use as plain vanilla and common version of a given operating system and web browser as is practically possible.

This is where hardened web browsers such as Tor browser can help.

It is best to use Tor browser without the Tor function as that is what most security experts recommend to users who want to reduce browser fingerprinting.

So that’s it?

Nope.

There is one unfortunate aspect of using Tor browser:

It opens up the user to various other forms of cyber attacks.

Moreover, using Tor browser will also affect the day-to-day functionality of the web browser as well as the user’s computer.

Eventually, a point will come when the user will find the idea of using Tor browser for daily tasks as impractical.

Another thing readers need to note here is that from Mozilla Firefox 57+ onwards, each time the user will update the browser (which the user must do, of course), Firefox would automatically switch back to Google as the default search engine.

Do you want to prevent that?

Well, then,

First, open up Firefox

Go to Menu

And then to Options

After that go to General

And then look for the option where it says Allow Firefox to

Then uncheck the option that says Automatically update search engine.

We have talked a lot about what you should do if Firefox has automatically selected the default search engine for you.

But that raises the obvious question:

Which default search engine should you have?

Well, there are lots of options available.

If you must use Google for workplace and such, then do so.

But if you want some privacy while searching for other sensitive topics then use DuckDuckGo.

Enable Global Tracking Protection

Firefox has offered users a decent amount of tracking protection since the year 2015.

But for some reason, it went ahead with hiding the option for users who wanted to enable it in the browser’s about:config page.

Thankfully, Firefox Quantum 57+ has brought tracking protection back to the browser’s main interface.

However, the default settings make sure that Firefox only enables this feature in the Private Browsing mode.

So how to enable tracking protection in Firefox at all time?

Well, the best way to enable tracking protection is to,

First, go to Firefox

Go to Options after opening the menu

Then go to Privacy & Security

And then look for the option that says Tracking Protection

When there, check the box that says Always.

For users who are on the Android platform,

First, open Firefox for the Android platform

And then go to Menu

After that go to Settings

And then go to Privacy

After that go to Tracking protection

When that is done, click on Enabled

Users should note that turning on the tracking protection brings lots of other benefits.

According to one study, tracking protection allows users to enjoy a total of 39 percent data usage reduction and 44 percent median page load time reduction for the top 200 Alexa news sites.

That is quite a boost.

How To Turn On Do Not Track

Another useful feature.

Most web browsers, or at least the majority of the mainstream ones, offer the Do Not Track feature.

So it is no surprise that Firefox does so as well.

Sometimes the Do Not Track feature is referred to as the DNT option.

When users enable this option, it will allow Firefox to request various websites that the user’s visits to not try and track the user.

With that said, users should know that even though Firefox will make the request, websites may or may not comply.

It is entirely voluntary.

The other sad fact is that most websites routinely ignore Do Not Track requests.

Of course, users should not expect any harm from enabling the Do Not Track option.

Besides, they may come across websites that respect the user’s DNT request.

To enable the DNT option,

First, make your way to Firefox

Open the Menu via the related button.

And then click on Options

After that make your way to Privacy & Security.

And then to the option that says Tracking PRotection.

Under this heading, you need to look out for radio buttons under Do Not Track. Check the Always button.

BetterPrivacy is the Firefox add-on you want if you want something to control those flash cookies.

Users will have to configure it first before it can begin to remove Flash cookies from the user’s computer automatically and that too on a daily basis.

Some experts have argued that BetterPrivacy is nothing but a redundant add-on.

Why have they said that?

They have said that because most websites now do not use Flash.

Before, almost every website used Flash.

Our research shows that if you care about your security and privacy then it is always better to be safe than sorry.

In other words, Better Privacy is still worth a go. We recommend that you should install this add-on along with the earlier one, Self-Destructing Cookies and make them work in tandem for a greater effect.

Update:

The author of Better Privacy has removed the addon from the official Firefox repository.

Why?

Like we told you before.

Everything is moving to WebExtensions.

Currently, the WebExtensions version of Better Privacy is still in beta.

With that said, Security Gladiators is more than hopeful that this add-on will reappear very soon in the future.

The user agent essentially tells a given website the type of machine that the user is on.

It also tells websites about the operating system that the user is running.

Along with that, it provides websites with information on which web browser is user has installed on his/her operating system.

A lot of modern websites use this kind of information in order to optimize their web pages for users.

This allows websites to perform faster.

And better.

They are more interactive so to say.

Now, although this information improves user experience, it doesn’t do much for privacy.

In other words, the user agent is the main culprit for a privacy problem we previously called web browser fingerprinting.

We’re not saying that all websites do this.

But they can.

And that is enough for a privacy-conscious user to take action.

What kind of an action can you take?

You can install Random Agent Spoofer.

What does it do?

It changes the information that the user agent has to give to any given website.

To take an example, Random Agent Spoofer can inform a website that the user is accessing the website via an iOS/iPhone device and is using the web browser Safari.

In truth, the user may be using a Windows machine with Firefox as the browser of choice.

Sounds great right?

Right.

But not so fast.

Security experts have long debated how Random Agent Spoofer can prove its effectiveness.

They believe that Random Agent Spoofer along with all other similar add-ons that promise users to prevent privacy issues such as Browser Fingerprinting don’t have enough about them to provide total security from such problem.

There is no doubt about the fact that unmodified and standard web browser like the one we mentioned before, the Tor Browser, provides more protection than all the mainstream browsers.

But the problem is this:

If the user is using several add-ons via the web browser then that makes the user more unique.

And Random Agent Spoofer can just move in and adjust the user’s USER AGENT in order to change the information.

If you are not using a ton of add-ons then the user agent isn’t going to do much.

We’re going to stick with privacy problems such as browser fingerprinting for a while.

This is where Canvas Defender comes in.

Allow us to explain.

You now know about browser fingerprinting.

What you did not know, was Canvas fingerprinting.

Browser fingerprinting comes in many shapes and sizes.

The most common form of web browser fingerprinting is Canvas fingerprinting.

Canvas fingerprinting techniques make use of a special script.

This script asks the user’s web browser to draw an image.

The image is hidden.

Then the script gets to work.

It makes use of tiny variations in order to change how the browser draws the image.

In the process of doing so, it manages to generate a code ID that is unique.

Then, it becomes very easy to track any user.

Scared enough?

Don’t worry.

Just use Canvas Defender.

This Firefox add-on will help you prevent such process taking place.

How?

Well, it will first create a persistent and unique noise.

This noise thing will hide the user’s genuine canvas fingerprint.

Problem solved.

Readers should note that at the time of writing this report, Firefox promised users that it would offer users built-in and default canvas fingerprinting protection in the organization’s coming versions of the web browser.

However, we are not going to sit on that.

Firefox will bring it, for sure.

But before it becomes available, users need to make sure that they have Canvas Defender installed on their Firefox web browser.

After Firefox launches its own, Canvas Defender, for all intents and purposes, will become redundant.

Zohair is currently a content crafter at Security Gladiators and has been involved in the technology industry for more than a decade. He is an engineer by training and, naturally, likes to help people solve their tech related problems. When he is not writing, he can usually be found practicing his free-kicks in the ground beside his house.

COMMENTS

Given the huge market Chrome browser has. I do not see the majority finding privacy a issue. These are all great ways to make Firefox more secure, but things like DRM are required for Netflix and other video streaming. You simply break functions people actually use just to satisfy privacy. One thing is certain that focusing on privacy hasn’t made Firefox more popular and in fact continues to shed users all the while Chrome continues to expand its dominance. If privacy was on most people’s minds, Chrome would be slowly losing ground to more private oriented browsers. I don’t see users waking up one day and realizing how Chrome is so terrible for privacy, I just don’t think most users care and they have accepted that adding more privacy breaks their internet experience and most don’t want that.

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Thanks for the comment John,
Couldn’t agree more on second thought.
You raise a valid point.
If people really cared about privacy, they would not choose Chrome.
However, one can’t ignore that portion of the society that does care a lot about their privacy in the online world.

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